Did Canvas stop working on this tool?

[svigallon]

New features are being introduced for the old Assignments tool, such as the webcam pics and student annotations, but they don't work in Assignment Enhancements. No word in the release notes about this. Anyone know if Assignment Enhancements will be kept up to date? We made a mistake enabling this tool, but if we go back, there are issues with multiple submission attempts. Furthermore, it's an all or nothing feature, with no Allow option. I'm feeling a bit stuck.

[GideonWilliams]

I have also noticed that as of last week the timeline feature has been removed. No mention at all why..

It is a great feature and guides the student along. At the moment, it just feels as though the student has been dropped into the assignments halfway through it..

Hoping this gets sorted ASAP and put back to how it was...

[jsailor]

@GideonWilliams, I am still seeing the basic timeline that  was available previously, but will check in with others to see if there is another that is no longer linked. 

Also, as mentioned, we continue to make improvements, so as you see updates, please let us know how we are doing in ensuring that the flow is clear for students and does not continue to feel like the student has dropped into the assignment halfway through it. 

[jsailor]

@svigallon, we are still very much invested in this work and are actively engaged in making improvements. Also, the added features for webcam capture and student annotations will be added to the assignment enhancements in the near future. 

[svigallon]

@jsailor Hi Jody. I know you probably can't say much, but I thought I'd ask anyway because faculty are asking me: Is there any chance that the webcam capture and student annotations will be added to the assignment enhancements by June 1? That's the start of our summer session.

[jsailor]

Hi @svigallon, I don't have exact timelines that I can share at the moment, but both of these are top priorities for our upcoming work in the continued enhancement of this feature. I will make a note to provide an update in the beta group as we make progress on these two items.  

[erik_lysbakken · Accepted solution]

This is probably the most anticipated update for Canvas since we started using it at our university in 2017/18 due to the flaws with the current system. And i might be very wrong, but it feels like this project has been on a stand still for the past year and a half based on the user group for the new enhancements. It would be great to get more status updates regarding the new enhancements, what your plans are on features etc.

[jsailor]

Hi, erik_lysbakken! I have recently taken over as the product lead on this project and have a blog post coming soon. In that post, I will detail the work that we've done as well as provide some updates on what you can expect to see in the near future. Please be on the lookout for that post. It will be linked to this space. 

[jsailor]

Just a quick follow-up to inform that the blog post detailing updates and upcoming work went live this morning. 

cc: @erik_lysbakken, @GideonWilliams, @svigallon   

[GideonWilliams]

Many thanks for taking the time to let us know about the updates to this feature.

[svigallon]

Hi @jsailor . I noticed in beta that student annotations are now working with the Assignment Enhancements, though I didn't see an announcement to that effect. The blog update says support has been added for that feature and also for webcam submissions, I still don't see the webcam submission feature in beta. Since our production site will be updated Saturday, I'd like to give our faculty a heads-up. Is it safe to tell them that student annotations will be operational Saturday, and webcam submissions will be operational in the near future? Thank you.

[jsailor]

@svigallon, apologies for the delayed response. Student annotation assignments is supported, but does direct to the old flow until we are finished with the work to fully support it in the same flow as expected in the new assignment enhancements. Webcam submissions is still being worked on so they will not yet see that available. 

[svigallon]

@jsailor Thanks, Jody. I'm a little confused on the Webcam Submissions not being seen by students yet. I've tested this on our production environment each day this week, and not only can students see the Webcam Submission button, but they can also take, and submit, a photo. It seems to work. Maybe I'm missing something?

[jsailor]

@svigallon, it appears that Assignment Enhancements - Student is not currently enabled for your account. Given that students are still using the traditional assignments submission workflow, they will see the webcam option and be able to use it. If, however, this feature option was enabled, it then would not show as we are currently working to update the improved submission workflow through assignment enhancements to also include this option. 

[svigallon]

@jsailor, you're right! I turned it on in January, and now it is off. I just assumed it was still on. I need to check with our other admins to see what happened. Sorry for the confusion. 

[danaleeling]

[Note: although I was able to reproduce this issue earlier today, this evening I saw an instance where the drop down list appeared for a resubmission. Perhaps a server side change fixed a regression, perhaps there was a transient issue. Either way, this may now be a resolved issue.]

I too am wondering whether work on this feature has terminated prematurely. Perhaps the tool is working as designed, but prior submissions are no longer accessible in Speedgrader.

With this feature turned off:

...instructors had access to prior submissions:

With the feature turned on:

...instructors have lost access to prior versions:

What am I missing or doing wrong? Note that the above screenshots do not come from the same institution/server, one has the feature enabled and has lost access to prior submissions, the other has the feature disabled and retains access to prior submissions. This is the same assignment, identically configured, sitting in two different institutions each on their own server. My apologies if this in the wrong place - I am unclear whether this is my misunderstanding, a feature, an unfinished tool, or a bug.

[jsailor]

Hi, @danaleeling. Thank you for the note at the top of your post. I have attempted to recreate this issue multiple times in multiple instances without success. We definitely have not and do not intend to remove the capability for instructors to view previous submissions. 

[danaleeling]

@jsailor Thanks, although I am still not able to view prior submissions and the prior submission comments, I have also not determined what exactly is happening and why. I do not have reproduction steps at this point. I just presume that this will resolve at some point. I only know that in the switch of this institution from a Singapore server to an Oregon server we went from Student Enhancements disabled by default to Student Enhancements enabled by default. We may be in a unique situation and have unique regression as a result. My impression is that few, if any, institutions, change servers. At the moment my plan is to leave the Student Enhancements setting enabled in admin until summer term ends, and if the issue remains, switch the setting off between terms and see what impact that has on fall term.

One possibility that perhaps I am misunderstanding: If I have allowed multiple submissions of a homework, do I have to click on the Reassign button to enable retention of earlier submissions? In the past I did not have to do anything in terms of "reassigning" but perhaps that is now the workflow?

Post-script edit: And today I was unable to reproduce the issue when working on a different computer (both Mac OSX Big Sur 11.4 using FireFox). As I said, I also cannot consistently reproduce the issue and I presume that it will eventually go away...🙂

Further edit:

As of June 24 I am still seeing instances where there ought to be drop down list access to a prior submission, but there is not drop down list. See above, this is a resubmission as per the screenshot, but there is no drop down list access. This is on FireFox 89.0.1, Mac 11.04, but my gut sense is that this is possibly related to students probably submitting via the Google LTI 1.3 submission method for a file "upload" from a Google Workspace for Education account. With classes asynchronous and online, I cannot verify this is the issue, but if so, then the issue is an external tool interface issue. I am working to be more careful to click on the "Reassign Assignment" button in the hopes that this will trigger retention of the earlier submissions.

[DavidSchlater]

We are new to canvas and may move to production in Jan 2022. Should we go to Assignment Enhancements now, or stick with the old/current view? I can't figure out what functionality we would be giving up. When will "enhancements" be permanent and the only option? Months or years from now?